UC-NRLF 


00 


o 


Ukraine,    Poland 
and    Russia 


and 


The    Right    of    the  Free 
Disposition  of  the  Peoples 


by 
.S.iShelukhib 

fr- 

(Former  Secretary  of  Justice  of  the  Ukrainian  Republic) 


(With  One  Map) 


Published  by 

Friends  of  Ukraine, 

345  Munsey  Building, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

1919 


Foreword 


From  the  Treaty  between  Ukraine  and  Russia 

(Concluded  at  Pereyaslav  on  March  14,  1654) 


ARTICLE  1 

First  of  all,  that  your  Czarian  Majesty  do 
deign  to  confirm  our  laws  and  our  military 
liberties,  in  accordance  with  the  time-honored 
custom  in  the  army  of  Zaporogue,  which  owed 
obedience  to  its  own  particular  laws  and 
possessed  franchises  in  property  and  in  justice 
which  neither  a  voievoda,  nor  a  boyar,  nor  a 
stolnik  could  meddle  with  in  the  military  tribu- 
nals, but  that  members  of  the  military  brother- 
hood be  judged  by  their  elders;  for  where  there 
are  three  Cossacks,  two  ought  to  judge  the  third. 
On  this  article  the  Sovereign  has  passed  his  fiat 
and  the  boyars  have  voted  that  it  be  so  done  in 
accordance  with  their  petition. 


ARTICLE  6 

And  if  the  Lord  Hetman  should  come  to 
die,  which  God  forbid,  (but  every  man  is  mortal, 
and  he,  the  Hetman,  the  same  as  the  rest)  that 
the  Zaporogue  army  itself,  do  elect  a  Hetman 
from  among  its  number,  and  make  the  announce- 


ment  to  his  Czarian  Majesty,  for  it  is  an  ancient 
custom  in  the  army.  The  Sovereign  has  ordered 
and  the  boyars  have  voted  that  it  be  so  done 
according  to  their  desire. 


ARTICLE  14 

As  to  Ambassadors,  who  from  time  im- 
memorial came  from  foreign  countries  to  the 
Zaporogue  army,  that  it  be  lawful  for  the  Lord 
Hetman  and  for  the  Zaporogue  army  to  receive 
them,  if  they  come  for  a  good  purpose;  that  this 
shall  not  be  disagreeable  to  His  Czarian  Majesty, 
and  if  anything  should  be  directed  against  His 
Czarian  Majesty,  we  would  warn  him  of  it. 

The  Sovereign  has  ordered  and  the  boyars 
have  voted:  Ambassadors  who  are  bearers  of 
good  messages  will  be  received  and  sent  on  their 
way,  and  the  Sovereign  will  be  advised  as  to 
what  business  they  came  upon  and  with  what 
manner  of  answer  they  were  dismissed;  but 
Ambassadors  who  shall  have  been  sent  on  busi- 
ness contrary  to  the  interests  of  his  Majesty  will 
not  be  dismissed;  and  as  to  the  Sultan  of  Turkey 
and  the  King  of  Poland,  without  an  Ukase  from 
the  Sovereign,  no  relation  will  be  entered  into 
with  them. 


UKRAINE,  POLAND  and  RUSSIA 


POLES  AND  RUSSIANS  AGAINST  UKRAINIANS 

It  would  be  a  grave  error  to  regard  the  struggle  of 
the  Poles  and  Russians  against  the  Ukrainians  as  a  result 
of  the  European  war,  or  to  seek  the  explanation  of  it  in 
Bolshevism.  The  world  war  has  only  served  to  crystal- 
lize the  relations  between  the  Russians,  Ukrainians  and 
Poles,  and  when  Russian  Bolshevism  appeared  on  the 
scene  the  war  between  these  nationalities  had  been  in 
existence  already  for  a  long  while. 

The  war  now  going  on  between  these  three  nationali- 
ties is  only  the  development  of  the  conflict  which  already 
existed  before  the  war  of  the  great  powers.  It  is  a  war 
purely  national  and  its  source  is  found  in  history,  its  ex- 
planation in  the  divergencies  of  national  psychology;  in 
the  difference  of  ideas,  of  aspirations  and  of  social  ten- 
dencies. 

PRISONS  OF  NATIONALITIES 

Well  before  the  war  the  national  problems  of  Aus- 
tria-Hungary and  of  Russia  were  very  clearly  defined  and 
the  national  relations  were  greatly  strained.  The  great 
war  has  only  given  to  these  problems  more  poignancy. 

The  national  yoke  in  Austria-Hungary  and  in  Russia 
has  shown  itself  so  onerous  that  these  empires  have  ac- 
quired the  appellation  of  "the  prisons  of  nationalities." 
These  great  imperialist  organizations  have  comprised 
different  nationalities  and  have  only  existed  in  an  artifi- 
cial way,  because  no  internal  bond  knitted  together  the 
nationalities  of  which  they  were  composed.  The  subject 
nationalities  aspired  to  liberty,  while  the  dominant 
ones  expended  great  energy  in  order  to  continue  in 
power  and  to  delay  the  moment  of  the  dissolution  of 
their  empires.  A  situation  like  this  paralyzed  all  the 
creative  forces  of  Austria-Hungary  and  Russia  and  little 
by  little  prepared  for  their  inevitable  fall.  The  world 

1 


war  has  hastened  the  moment  of  the  catastrophe  with- 
out, however,  causing  to  disappear  the  war  of  national- 
ities. To  avert  that  war,  it  would  have  been  necessary 
before  all  to  bring  into  action  those  great  modern  princi- 
ples which  ought  to  preside  over  international  relations, 
a  thing  that  has  not  been  done  up  to  now. 

We  know  that  in  Austria-Hungary  the  dominant 
nationalities  were  the  Germans,  the  Hungarians  and  the 
Poles;  and  the  subjugated  nationalities  the  Czechs, 
Ukrainians,  the  Slovenes,  Italians,  Slovaks,  the  Croats, 
and  the  Roumanians.  In  order  to  obtain  the  power  to 
subjugate  the  Ukrainians  of  Galicia,  the  imperialistic 
Poles,  wishing  to  satisfy  their  national  egotism,  betrayed 
the  Slav  cause.  They  voluntarily  offered  their  services 
to  the  Germans  and  to  the  Hungarians  and  in  the  Aus- 
trian Parliament  have  always  ranged  themselves  against 
oppressed  nationalities,  and  at  every  opportunity  have 
placed  obstacles  in  the  way  of  their  liberation. 

In  Russia  the  dominant  nationality  was  Russian;  all 
the  others  were  oppressed  and  persecuted,  especially  the 
Ukrainians.  Their  persecution  has  been  so  bitter  that 
they  were  forbidden  even  to  sing  national  songs,  to  em- 
ploy their  orthography  and  to  call  themselves  Ukrainians. 

PERSECUTIONS  OF  UKRAINIANS  IN  AUSTRIA 
AND  RUSSIA 

At  the  moment  when  the  great  war  broke  out,  the 
Ukrainians  of  Galicia  were  accused  by  the  Austrian  Poles 
of  the  crime  of  high  treason  in  favor  of  Russia,  and  their 
persecution  increased.  The  accused  were  maltreated  in 
prisons,  they  were  reduced  to  hunger,  were  subjected  to 
tortures,  were  hanged  and  shot  down.  In  the  prison  of 
Talerhof  alone  more  than  3,500  Ukrainians  were  done  to 
death. 

Many  unjust  laws  were  also  promulgated  against 
the  Ukrainians;  for  example,  that  of  the  fifth  of  Novem- 
ber, 1917,  by  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  in  which  he 
disposed  of  the  Ukrainian  people  in  a  manner  that  landed 
proprietors  formerly  disposed  of  their  serfs. 

In  Russia,  the  very  day  after  the  declaration  of  war, 
a  whole  series  of  instructions  and  orders  were  given 

2 


against  the  Ukrainians;  their  newspapers  were  sup- 
pressed, so  were  their  national  organizations,  while  the 
Poles  were  permitted  their  national  liberties  and  the  pos- 
sibility of  national  resurrection.  After  the  occupation  of 
Galicia,  Russia  granted  many  liberties  and  privileges  to 
the  Poles  and  at  the  same  time  subjected  the  Ukrainians 
to  a  regime  and  persecution  so  severe  that  even  the  offi- 
cial journal  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Russian 
army  protested  against  such  treatment.  They  threw 
Ukrainians  in  thousands  into  the  Russian  prisons  and 
exiled  them  to  Siberia.  The  Panslav,  M.  Sazonoff,  prom- 
ised Roumania  to  recompense  her  for  her  military  assist- 
ance, Banat  with  the  Servians  and  Bukovina  with  the 
Ukrainians,  while  giving  her  full  liberty  of  action  for  the 
future  Roumanization  of  Ukrainians  and  Servians.  Not 
only  in  reactionary  centers,  but  also  in  the  liberal  press 
and  in  the  Duma,  governmental  measures  were  used  to 
repress  the  reawakening  of  nationalities. 

Even  after  the  revolution  the  Russian  government, 
composed  for  the  most  part  of  representatives  of  the 
parties  of  the  left,  did  equally  their  utmost  to  crush  the 
impulse  of  the  Ukrainian  people  toward  liberty  and 
national  rebirth.  The  Russian  populace  proceeded  to 
massacre  the  Ukrainian  emigrants  in  the  governments  of 
Samara,  of  Saratof  and  of  Penza  and  to  despoil  them  of 
all  their  possessions,  driving  them  back  toward  the 
Ukraine.  Later  on,  when  the  Bolsheviki  came  into  power 
in  Russia,  they  fought  against  the  Ukrainian  people, 
with  the  object  of  stamping  out  their  liberty  and  of  re- 
storing the  Russian  domination  over  Ukraine  under  the 
Bolshevik  form.  In  this  way  the  national  relations  be- 
tween the  Poles,  the  Russians  and  the  Ukrainians  have 
become  more  and  more  strained,  even  to  the  point  of  war 
between  Ukraine,  Poland  and  Russia. 

A  WAR  OF  NATIONALITY 

A  war  of  nationality  between  Ukrainians,  Russians 
and  Poles  has  in  truth  merited  its  name  since  the  moment 
when  Russia  and  Austria-Hungary  disintegrated  and  the 
new  states  arose  on  the  ruins  of  the  two  empires. 

3 


In  this  war,  thrust  upon  the  Ukrainians,  the  latter 
have  stood  always  on  the  defensive,  setting  up  no  claim 
to  neighboring  territory  and  consequently  attacking  none 
of  their  neighbors.  As  to  Russia,  there  is  no  nationality 
freed  from  her  yoke  and  having  formed  her  own  state 
who  does  not  declare  her  firm  resolution  never  again 
under  any  circumstances  to  be  united  with  Russia.  As 
to  Poland,  there  is  no  neighboring  nation  with  whom  she 
lives  on  good  terms,  and  every  neighbor  of  Poland  de- 
clares that  she  would  be  better  pleased  without  the  honor 
of  being  Poland's  neighbor. 

All  the  newly  formed  states,  Ukraine,  Lithuania, 
White  Russia,  Lettonia,  Georgia,  wish  to  maintain  their 
complete  independence  and  have  put  forth  all  their  efforts 
to  consolidate  their  independence  and  to  safeguard  it. 
They  have  even  formed  a  union  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
fending their  independence  against  the  attacks  of  Poland 
and  Russia. 

This  fact  is  not  due  to  chance,  but  to  internal  causes, 
the  principal  of  which  is  found  in  characteristic  traits  of 
Polish  and  Russian  society,  in  their  tendencies  and  atti- 
tude toward  other  nationalities. 

UKRAINE  ALWAYS  ASPIRED  TO  LIBERTY 

Since  the  dawn  of  history,  the  Ukrainian*  people 
have  proved  themselves  the  protector  of  democratic  or- 
der. Never  have  they  betrayed  that  ideal. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  Ukrainian  people  as- 
sumed the  task  of  realizing  the  idea  of  liberty,  equality 
and  fraternity,  by  forming  themselves  into  an  independ- 
ent and  free  state.  The  organization  of  the  association 
of  Zaporogian  Cossacks  astonished  the  whole  world. 
Led  on  by  the  principle  of  liberty  the  Ukrainian  people 
have  struggled  for  the  independence  of  their  democratic 
republic  against  the  Poles  and  the  Russians.  That  strug- 
gle caused  Voltaire  to  write,  "Ukraine  has  always  aspired 
to  liberty."  The  realization  of  that  idea  is  only  possible 


•  The  name  Ukrainian  which  others  have  wished  to  dispute  with 
the  people  who  have  borne  it  for  centuries  we  meet  with  in  the  most 
ancient  documents  going  back  to  the  twelfth  century.  The  chronicle 
Hypace  of  the  year  1187,  as  well  as  the  chronicles  of  1189  and  1213, 
speak  to  us  of  this' name  as  being-  universally  recognized. 


under  a  democratic  regime.  With  this  democratic  regime 
the  Ukrainians  have  laid  the  foundation  of  the  social 
structure  of  their  state.  It  was  with  this  reservation 
that  Ukraine  placed  herself  under  the  protectorate  of 
the  Muscovite  Czar,  while  conserving  all  her  rights  as  a 
state,  all  her  institutions,  and  her  entire  social  organism. 
Cromwell  spoke  well  when  he  apprised  Hetman  Khmel- 
nitzky,  "that  never  would  Muscovy  respect  Ukrainian 
liberty."  The  Ukrainian  people,  in  fact,  lost  it  after  a 
long  and  painful  struggle.  Russian  politics  put  in  its 
program  the  destruction  of  the  Ukrainian  culture  and 
the  absorption  of  their  nationality  by  the  Muscovites. 
Here  is  the  reason  why  the  centralizing  regime  of  Mos- 
cow proceeded  to  destroy  all  the  Ukrainian  institutions 
and  to  prevent  manifestations  of  Ukrainian  nationalism. 
But  it  was  impossible  or  at  least  difficult  to  annihilate 
among  the  Ukrainian  people  the  national  spirit  and  psy- 
chology. In  Russia,  no  more  than  in  Austria,  where  the 
lot  of  the  Ukrainians  was  not  enviable,  have  the  Ukrain- 
ian people  ever  abandoned  their  national  sentiment. 
Taught  by  their  own  history,  they  have  treasured  up  and 
elaborated  their  ideals  and  have  awaited  the  auspicious 
moment  for  their  realization. 

THE  UKRAINIAN  DEMOCRATIC  REPUBLIC 

In  1847  was  founded  the  "Brotherhood  of  Cyril  and 
Method,"  the  object  of  which  was  to  organize  the  inde- 
pendent Ukrainian  Republic.  It  put  in  its  program  the 
diffusion  of  the  same  idea  among  all  the  Slav  races.  To- 
ward 1880  Professor  Drahomanov  enlarged  this  program 
and  extended  it  to  all  nationalities.  The  Ukrainian  Dep- 
uties of  the  first  Duma  (1906)  unfolded  a  plan  for  the 
realization  of  that  idea.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  Revo- 
lution of  1917  the  entire  Ukrainian  democracy  has  worked 
to  establish  the  Ukrainian  Republic  on  lines  truly  demo- 
cratic. 

In  order  to  realize  this  idea  in  accord  with  the  neigh- 
boring nationalities,  the  Ukrainians  summoned  their  rep- 
resentatives to  a  Congress  which  opened  its  sessions  at 
Kiev,  September  21,  1917.  The  principles  on  which 

5 


THE  NEW  MAP 
OF  EUROPE 

APPROXIMATE  BOUNDARIES  OF  PEOPLES 


HERBERT  ADOLPHUS  MILLER 
1918 


SLAVS  IN  STRAIGHT  LINES  — 


fORMER  EMPIRE  OF  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 


UKRAINE 

AREA:  330,000 
square    miles. 

POPULATION: 
45,000,000. 

FORM  OF  GOVERN 
MENT:  Republic. 

ESTABLISHED: 
1917. 


A  F  R  I  C  A 


CAPITAL  CITY: 
Kiev. 


Wiim 


BLACK  SEA 


IAN 


^Q    JERUSALEM 


Ukrainians  founded  the  organization  of  their  state  and 
of  their  international  relations  are  the  same  as  those 
enunciated  by  the  greatest  thinkers. 

Seneca  saw  long  since  that  the  whole  of  mankind 
was  composed  of  nationalities  and  that  a  nationality  was 
the  result  of  the  harmony  of  its  members,  hence  a  na- 
tionality is  a  positive  force  and  the  most  important  factor 
in  the  life  of  humanity  and  its  development.  Conse- 
quently the  development  of  the  national  conscience  al- 
ways marks  a  stage  of  progress  in  the  history  of  human- 
ity. Every  nationality  has  the  right  to  an  independent 
existence  and  to  the  free  development  of  its  faculties  in 
close  union  with  other  nationalities  without  injury  to  their 
rights.  This  idea  is  based  on  the  solidarity  of  interests 
and  the  union  of  humanity.  Logically  we  must  concede 
the  recognition  of  the  right  of  self-determination  to  all 
peoples,  powerful  and  weak,  even  though  they  are  more 
or  less  civilized. 

The  existence  of  a  sovereign  state  only  serves  to  as- 
sure the  independence  and  the  possibility  of  the  free 
development  of  a  nationality.  Therefore,  each  state 
should  only  establish  herself  within  ethnographical  boun- 
daries, peopled  in  the  majority  by  her  citizens,  fellow 
nationals,  with  special  constitutional  guarantees  to  insure 
the  rights  of  minorities.  The  ethnographical  principle 
based  on  actual  facts  and  figures  averts  the  possibility 
of  imperialism  and  the  development  of  militarism,  while 
the  autonomy  of  national  minorities  secures  them  against 
vexations  and  servitude.  A  strong  state  should  not  take 
advantage  of  a  weak  state  and  use  it  as  a  tool  for  her  own 
interests.  Imperialistic  designs  should  be  destroyed  for- 
ever. 

THE  RIGHT  OP  SELF-DETER/AINATION 
The  Congress  of  nationalities  at  Kiev  accepted  all 
these  principles  as  the  foundation  of  national  states.  Con- 
sisting of  ninety-three  representatives  from  all  the  na- 
tionalities living  in  Russia,  it  proclaimed  in  its  resoluton 
of  September,  1917  (well  before  President  Wilson  had 
enunciated  his  fourteen  points  which  were  to  serve  as  the 
basis  of  a  final  settlement)  : 

8 


1.  The  right  of  self-determination  of  peoples  within 
the  limits  of  their  ethnic  boundaries. 

2.  The  right  of  these  entities  to  international  rep- 
resentations. 

3.  The  abolition  of  all  fetters,  political,  civil  and 
religious,  in  international  relations. 

4.  The  right  of  national  minorities. 

Finally,  it  proclaimed  the  right  of  all  nationalities 
in  Russia  to  elect  a  constituent  assembly  which,  armed 
with  national  sovereignty,  would  have  the  right  of  ulti- 
mately pronouncing  on  the  question  of  confederation  of 
the  peoples  of  Russia.  The  federative  principle  had  for 
its  object  not  only  the  enfranchisement  and  union  of  the 
peoples  of  Russia,  but  at  the  same  time  the  guarantee  of 
their  independence  against  Germanic  domination.  (See 
paragraph  6  of  the  resolutions  of  Congress.) 

The  Congress  gave  its  unqualified  sanction  to  the 
action  of  the  Ukrainians,  and  strengthened  their  position 
for  the  creation  of  an  independent  Ukrainian  Republic, 
while  opening  up  broad  views  of  national  development 
to  other  nationalities.  After  the  Congress,  but  without 
any  connection  therewith,  President  Wilson  made  a  de- 
claration developed  later  on  in  his  speeches  on  peace, 
international  relations,  etc.,  the  principles  of  which  were 
in  perfect  accord  with  the  claims  of  the  Congress  of  Na- 
tionalities. 

The  principle  of  the  delimitation  of  states  according 
to  their  ethnographical  boundaries  found  here  its  prac- 
tical application.  In  Point  Thirteen  President  Wilson 
defined  the  future  frontiers  of  Poland  as  embracing  only 
those  territories  peopled  by  an  indisputable  majority  of 
Poles. 

Taking  their  stand  on  the  principles  proclaimed  by 
the  Entente  Powers,  the  Ukrainians  have  included  as 
constituting  one  single  state,  the  Republic  of  Ukraine,  all 
the  territories  peopled  by  Ukrainians  belonging  to  the 
former  Russia.  Within  her  ethnographical  boundaries, 
Ukraine  occupies  a  territory  of  330,000  square  miles, 
with  a  population  of  approximately  45,000,000  inhab- 


itants.  Ukraine  would  have  been  able  to  concentrate  all 
her  forces  on  the  internal  and  external  organization  of 
the  country  had  not  the  Russian  and  Polish  imperialists 
hindered  the  work;  now,  however,  Ukraine  is  obliged 
to  spend  her  forces  in  a  defensive  war  against  Russia  and 
Poland. 

POLISH  ACTIVITIES  IN  UKRAINE 

In  the  course  of  the  history  of  Poland,  the  Polish 
population  has  been  divided  into  two  very  distinct  classes, 
the  aristocrats  and  the  farmers.  The  aristocrats  have 
assumed  the  representation  of  the  entire  people,  have 
enjoyed  liberties  of  every  kind,  and  have  enslaved  the 
farmers.  Many  in  number,  they  haye  vied  with  one 
another  in  pursuit  of  the  pleasures  of  life  and  have  there- 
by drained  the  resources  which  were  necessary  for  the 
enslaved  agricultural  population  to  carry  on  their  labors. 

Poland  within  her  actual  ethnographical  boundaries 
numbers  20,000,000  million  inhabitants,  of  which  15,000,- 
000  are  Poles.  To  gratify  their  greed  for  pleasure,  the 
Polish  aristocrats  were  therefore  obliged  to  conquer  ad- 
jacent countries  and  to  enslave  their  inhabitants.  To 
assimilate  these  inhabitants  and  neutralize  centrifugal 
forces  they  have  created  a  complete  system  of  Poloniza- 
tion.  Hostile  to  every  democratic  principle,  they  have 
established  a  system  of  the  most  severe  servitude  for  the 
national  minorities.  Thus  there  has  been  developed  in 
Poland  an  exaggerated  imperialism  having  for  its  ideal 
a  greater  Poland  stretching  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black 
Sea,  and  in  which  all  the  inhabitants  would  belong  to  the 
same  nationality  while  embracing,  all  of  them,  one  re- 
ligion only,  Catholicism. 

The  Poles  have  displayed  the  greatest  energy  in  sub- 
jecting the  Ukrainian  people.  Pacific  by  nature,  they 
have  been  obliged  to  sustain  continual  struggles  with  Po- 
land for  the  defense  of  their  independence,  and  Poland, 
enfeebled,  when  attacked  by  her  neighbors,  saw  herself 
delivered  over  to  "partitions."  Despite  her  misfortune, 
Poland  has  bequeathed  to  her  descendants  the  old  ideals 
of  conquest  they  seek  to  realize  today. 

10 


POLISH  I/APERIALISA 

There  has  been  elaborated  for  a  long  period  a  pro- 
gram of  Polish  activity  with  regard  to  the  other  nation- 
alities and  particularly  the  Ukrainians.  This  program 
was  published  in  1848  and  reprinted  in  1862  in  the 
Ukrainian  magazine,  "Osnowa."  One  of  the  articles  of 
the  program  recommends  the  Poles  to  keep  the  Ukrain- 
ians in  ignorance,  to  regard  all  that  which  was  Ukrain- 
ian religion,  language  and  education,  as  characteristic 
of  a  primitive  culture,  while  at  the  same  time  the  Ukrain- 
ian people  should  be  encouraged  to  accept  with  the  Pol- 
ish nationality  all  its  culture.  The  latter  was  represented 
as  the  highest  point  of  progress.  In  order  to  subject  the 
Ukrainian  people  more  easily  the  Poles  were  advised  not 
to  entrust  any  important  position  to  any  Ukrainian.  An 
entire  doctrine  of  imperialism,  of  chauvinism,  of  national 
intolerance,  of  hate  for  everything  which  was  not  Polish 
and  particularly  with  regard  to  everything  which  was 
Ukrainian,  was  propagated.  To  that  doctrine  adhered 
even  men  of  superior  intellect,  like  Henry  Sienkiewicz, 
who  devoted  the  force  of  his  talent  to  propagating  it. 

It  is  clear  that  this  system  of  methodical  "civilizing" 
employed  by  the  Polish  nation  and  applied  to  education 
and  to  the  formation  of  a  Polish  body  politic  would  have 
disastrous  results  on  the  morality  of  the  nation.  Far- 
sighted  Poles  have  seen  this  and  have  warned  the  nation 
of  the  pernicious  consequences  of  that  deification  of  the 
Polish  nation,  which  has  annihilated  among  the  Poles  the 
sense  of  justice,  put  a  drag  on  the  wheels  of  their  prog- 
ress and  caused  them  to  retrograde  to  eighteenth  century 
conditions.  It  is  therefore  natural  that  in  beginning  to 
rebuild  their  state  the  Poles  have  dreamed  of  conquering 
adjacent  territory  and  of  satisfying  their  nationalist  aims 
at  the  expense  of  the  Ukrainians,  the  Lithuanians,  the 
White  Ruthenians  and  other  neighboring  peoples.  The 
Poles  have  many  times  declared  in  their  publications  that 
Poland  should  count  forty  millions  of  inhabitants.  It  is 
also  quite  natural  that  the  Ukrainian  people,  who  have 
endured  so  long  the  Polish  yoke,  will  never  accept,  after 


11 


having  been  raised  into  an  independent'  state,  the  doom 
of  being  buried  again  in  a  servitude  so  abhorrent. 

Never  will  the  Ukrainians  yield  their  rights  to  their 
hereditary  foes,  even  though  the  Poles,  reinforced  by 
sympathizers  from  among  the  Lithuanians  and  the  White 
Ruthenians  become  more  numerous.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  struggle  now  going  on  exhausts  the  Ukrainian  people, 
but  sustained  as  they  are  by  the  cause  of  liberty,  they 
will  remain  ever  consecrated,  and  in  such  measure  will 
come  new  strength.  Throughout  this  period  will  Europe 
be  deprived  of  peace,  and  the  neighbors  of  Poland, 
through  her  fault,  will  be  totally  prevented  from  work- 
ing out  their  internal  and  external  organization  and 
strengthening  the  foundations  of  peace  and  order. 

RUSSIAN  I/APERIALIS/A 

While  the  doctrine  of  imperialism  and  the  racial 
hatred  were  being  developed  among  the  Poles  by  educa- 
tion, among  the  Russians  the  same  sentiments  originating 
in  their  natural  character,  grew  stronger  and  stronger 
with  the  unfolding  of  the  history  of  their  country.  But 
while  the  Poles  stopped  short  in  their  dreams  of  con- 
quest on  the  borders  of  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea, 
the  Russians  saw  themselves  masters  of  the  whole  of 
Europe  and  of  Asia,  saw  themselves  crossing  the  Darda- 
nelles and  masters  of  all  seas.  One  may  truly  say  that 
the  Russians  are  tainted  with  megalomania.  This  fact  is 
recognized  even  by  Russian  authors  beginning  with 
Samarin  and  ending  with  V.  Soloviev,  who  have  declared 
that  the  Russian  people  are  inclined  toward  brute  force, 
that  they  accept  things  on  authority  without  other  ex- 
planations. The  above  ideals  are  for  them  an  object 
of  education.  Those  who  attribute  the  imperialistic 
policy  ,of  Russia  to  the  government  alone  make  a 
great  mistake.  The  government  has  always  found  in 
the  traits  peculiar  to  the  Russian  national  character  the 
support  of  its  imperialism  and  the  source  of  its  power. 
Peter  the  Great,  Ivan  Kalyta,  and  Andrew  Bogolubsky 
only  engendered  the  incarnation  of  this  spirit  of  the  na- 
tion of  Muscovy.  Consequently  Russia  from  the  beginning 
of  her  existence  has  only  waxed  great  by  subjecting  for- 

12 


eign  nations,  by  assimilating  them  and  by  the  domination 
due  solely  to  brute  force.  The  history  of  Russia  is  the  his- 
tory of  imperialism,  the  history  of  the  absorption  of  other 
nationalities  by  violence,  in  order  to  make  one  entire  na- 
tionality to  which  was  given  the  name  of  "official  nation- 
ality." For  that  reason  too  little  attention  has  been 
paid  to  the  development  of  a  real  popular  education. 
Deprived  of  substratum,  Russia  naturally  fell  to  pieces 
the  day  when  the  other  nationalities  had  an  opportunity 
to  resume  their  own  existence.  In  liberating  themselves 
these  nationalities  made  no  attack  on  the  nationality  who 
had  kept  them  under  her  yoke.  The  Great  Russians, 
however,  have  put  forth  their  efforts  to  re-establish  that 
prison  into  which  the  newly  formed  states  have  no  notion 
of  ever  entering  again. 

TREATY  OF  UKRAINE  WITH  RUSSIA 

The  Ukrainian  people  entered  into  a  free  union  with 
Russia  under  personal  allegiance  to  the  Czar  in  1654, 
with  a  reservation  for  preserving  their  own  republic,  their 
governmental  system,  and  their  political  and  social  or- 
ganization for  economic  and  cultural  development.  The 
treaty  consecrating  that  union  has  not  been  respected, 
and  the  Ukrainians  in  defense  of  their  independence  have 
not  found  support  in  any  class  of  the  Russian  people. 
The  individual  cases  which  have  shown  themselves  favor- 
able to  the  Ukrainian  movement  have  been  only  the  ex- 
ception ;  the  political  parties,  liberal  or  conservative,  have 
always  in  practice  resisted  the  awakening  of  national 
sentiment  in  Ukraine,  though  in  theory  they  compromised 
with  it. 

The  Ukrainians  have  undergone  savage  persecutions. 
An  impossible  gulf  has  been  fixed  between  the  Russian 
and  Ukrainian  nationalities.  Drahomanov,  about  1880, 
in  his  work  on  Historical  Poland  and  the  Democracy  of 
Great  Russia,  drew  attention  to  this  phenomenon.  Don- 
zow,  Lozynsky,  Levynsky,  Yefremov  and  others  treated 
the  same  question  in  their  publications.  The  only  reply 
on  the  Russian  part  consisted  in  a  continuance  of  the  ag- 
gression and  of  the  regime  of  persecutions  directed 
against  the  Ukrainians. 

13 


Voices  were  raised  in  the  Duma  of  1906  against  the 
regime.  Necessary  measures  were  taken  to  prevent  the 
re-election  of  deputies  favorable  to  the  cause  of  the 
Ukrainians.  Not  the  Bolsheviki  only,  but  the  rest  of 
Great  Russians  as  well,  show  themselves  hostile  to  the 
Ukrainian  national  awakening.  The  revolution  has 
changed  nothing  in  these  relations. 

RUSSIAN  POLITICAL   PARTIES  AND   UKRAINE 

The  provisional  government,  composed  of  liberals 
and  socialists,  has  always  shown  itself  to  be  a  centraliz- 
ing and  imperialistic  power  so  far  as  the  Ukrainians  are 
concerned.  It  has  taken  special  measures  and  passed 
exceptional  laws  against  the  Ukrainian  government.  In 
the  course  of  all  the  meetings  and  all  the  assemblies  in 
which  the  Russians  found  themselves  in  the  majority, 
from  the  extreme  left  to  the  extreme  right,  there  pre- 
vailed the  same  chauvinism,  the  heritage  of  Czarism. 

When  Russian  Bolsheviki  seized  the  power,  they  de- 
clared war  on  the  Ukrainian  nationalists  even  on  those 
who  never  took  part  in  politics,  such  as  Professor  Sumt- 
sov  and  Mrs.  Yefimenko,  on  no  other  ground  than  that 
they  had  greatly  contributed  to  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  Ukrainian  people. 

The  other  Great  Russian  party,  the  reactionaries,  do 
not  differ  essentially  from  the  Bolsheviks  on  the  Ukrain- 
ian question.  Their  attitude  before  the  war  is  only  too 
well  known.  Grouped  around  General  Kolchak  and 
General  Denikin,  they  make  at  this  moment  every  effort 
to  reconstruct  the  Russia  of  the  former  regime,  with  all 
its  system  of  enslavement  for  the  Ukrainian  people. 

Outside  these  two  parties  there  is  a  third,  for  the 
moment  passive,  which  is  called  "The  Russian  Demo- 
cratic Party."  Its  representatives  have  recently  pub- 
lished a  manifesto  in  which  they  declare  that  they  do  not 
recognize  the  Ukrainian  government,  proclaiming  the 
All-Russian  Constituent  Assembly  and  discrediting  all  the 
constituent  assemblies  of  the  several  nationalities.  It 
must  not  be  overlooked  that  in  an  All-Russian  Constituent 
Assembly  the  Great  Russians  or  Muscovites  will  neces- 

14 


sarily  be  in  the  majority,  and  consequently  the  principle 
of  self-determination  of  peoples  will  not  exist.  The  Rus- 
sians will  dispose  of  the  destiny  of  other  nationalities. 
"Federation"  is  for  these  so-called  democrats  only  a  mask 
to  conceal  their  real  sentiments,  and  it  does  not  deceive 
the  intelligent.  If  they  only  had  the  power  they  would 
act  with  regard  to  Ukraine  just  as  did  the  Poles,  the  reac- 
tionaries and  the  Bolsheviks. 

UKRAINE  AND  HER   RIGHT   TO  SELF-DETER- 
MINATION. 

Each  nationality  has  a  right  to  its  own  development, 
which  can  never  be  assured  except  in  its  own  state.  The 
Ukrainian  nationality,  the  Russian  and  Polish  nationali- 
ties have  everything  which  is  necessary  from  an  economic 
point  of  view,  cultural,  social  and  national,  for  the  found- 
ing of  independent  states.  Russia  and  Poland  can  exist 
as  well  without  Ukraine  as  Ukraine  can  without  them. 
Neither  of  these  states  has  any  rights  over  Ukraine  any 
more  than  Ukraine  has  any  rights  over  them.  It  is  sheer 
imperialism  to  occupy  the  territory  of  neighbors.  The 
Ukrainian  government,  which  cherishes  no  such  aspira- 
tions, in  order  to  ensure  the  rights  of  national  minorities, 
Great  Russians,  Poles,  etc.,  has  promulgated  a  law  on 
particular  national  autonomy. 

Today  a  war  goes  on  between  the  Ukrainians  and 
Russians.  Russians  and  Poles  not  only  in  the  past,  but  in 
the  present,  show  that  they  reject  in  their  international 
relations  the  principles  approved  by  the  Entente  and  by 
the  civilized  world.  In  acting  thus  Poland  forgets  that  it 
is  by  grace  of  these  principles  that  she  has  been  restored 
and  that  she  has  been  able  to  enter  into  the  League  of 
Nations  established  precisely  by  the  application  of  these 
same  principles.  Further,  the  Poles  actually  make  use 
of  the  assistance  brought  to  them  by  the  Entente  for  the 
purpose  of  directing  it  against  the  Ukrainians.  The  Rus- 
sian Bolsheviks  are  strong  in  the  support  of  Bolsheviks 
of  other  nations,  the  forces  of  reaction  grouped  around 
Kolchak  and  Denikin,  while  receiving  aid  from  the  En- 
tente, would  restore  that  former  Russia  which  would  in- 
.evitably  engulf  Ukraine. 

15 


Ukraine,  who  has  commenced  to  realize  the  Wilson- 
ian  principles,  and  who  seeks  in  nowise  to  make  con- 
quests, is  not  as  yet  received  into  the  League  of  Nations 
and  receives  no  assistance.  Her  hope  rests  entirely  on 
the  conviction  that  there  exists  an  Immanent  Justice.  She 
strongly  believes  in  the  law  of  life  which  abuses  the  pow- 
erful when  they  abuse  their  power.  In  that  truth  she 
will  find  the  force  requisite  for  the  defense  of  her  inde- 
pendence and  of  her  national  liberty.  That  truth  which 
wills  Poland  to  the  Poles,  Russia  to  the  Russians,  wills 
equally  and  with  the  same  force  Ukraine  to  the  Ukrain- 
ians. That  truth  alone  is  strong  enough  to  make  people 
strong  and  to  put  an  end  to  war. 


16 


S453 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


.    i 


'£j# 


